The present invention relates to a mounting apparatus and a mounting method for a connector which is mounted to a board with the use of a clip.
There have been available connectors of a board mounting type, wherein, by inserting a side edge portion of a board into clip-shaped connecting portions of elastic contacts of the connector, the connector is fixed on the board with terminal portions of the contacts being abutting under pressure conductor patterns formed on the board.
When mounting the connector of this type to the board, the contacting portion of the contact is opened by hooking with a pawl of an apparatus and, after inserting the board into the opened connecting portion, the pawl is removed or the board is directly inserted further into the connecting portion by forcibly expanding the connecting portion of the contact.
In the conventional techniques, however, it is difficult to determine a structure of the pawl, it is difficult to adjust a width of the connecting portion of the contact to be opened by the pawl, and it is difficult, due to the space limitation, to design a spring which can prevent plastic deformation of the contacting portion of the contact. Further, in particular, in case of a board having sharp corners, such as a liquid crystal glass board, if the foregoing method of forcibly expanding the connecting portion of the contact by the board is used, the contacting portion of the contact and the board are both damaged. Particularly, damages to the glass board and the conductor patterns are serious so that the poor production efficiency is resulted due to existence of defective products.
For solving the foregoing problems, there has been proposed a connector of a board mounting type by the present inventors et al. In the connector, when a board is inserted into connecting portions of contacts of the connector at a given angle, the board can be inserted without contacting the connecting portions of the contacts. Thereafter, the connector is turned toward the board with respect to a given point on the contact so that terminal portions of the contacts abut conductor patterns of the board under pressure. Then, for keeping the connection therebetween, the connector is fixed to the board using clips.
Conventionally, however, the foregoing processes have been all manually carried out. Therefore, the process of inserting the board into the connecting portions of the contacts at the given angle, the process of turning the connector toward the board and the process of attaching the clips over the connector and the board, all should be manually performed. This is quite troublesome. Particularly, it is difficult to carry out the process of inserting the board into the contacting portions of the contacts at the given angle. For example, the insertion angle of the board may go wrong to cause the board to abut the connecting portions of the contacts so that damage to the board or the contact may occur, or the connecting portions of the contacts may be subjected to plastic deformation.